Backup on usb rdx device on a windows 2008 r2 hyper-v host from inside a vm

[BEThommy]

Hello

i have the following situation: Windows 2008 R2 Hyper-V core server, hosting a windows 2008 R2 VM. Inside this VM i installed BE 2010 R3. The host server has a usb attached HP RDX Device.

My goal is  to backup from inside the VM to the RDX drive connected to the Host Server

What i did:

I pushed the BE remote agent from inside the VM onto the core hostserver. To get sure i opened the firewall port 10000 on the core server. Then i created from inside Backup Exec a remote media agent connection to the core server, which seems to work. But i can not see the HP RDX Device attached to the core server from inside Backup Exec. I assumed to need the symantec driver on the core server for the rdx device. But tapeinst.exe wont execute on the core server.

Does anyone know, how i could achieve to backup from inside a virtual machine to a usb rdx device, which is attached to the hosting core server?

Thanks for any advice

[pkh · Accepted solution]

It is always preferable that you use a physical machine as your media server.  It would better to load BE on the host, rather than the VM.  The pass-through from a VM to the physical device is not tested by Symantec.  Read this discussion, especially Colin Weaver's comment and the document referenced by me.

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/forums/backup-exec-2010-r3-installed-vmware-vsphere-4-esxi-4...

Although this if for VMware, the situation should be the same for Hyper-V.

[Colin_Weaver]

1) With the Exception of the RMAL and NDMP Options backup target devices have to be connected/available directly on the media (BE core) server

2) We do not test or officially support USB or SCSI Passthrough into virtual machines (In either Hyper-V or VMware) for storage devices (B2D/R-B2D or Tape/Libary)

As such recommend you reconfigure so that Backup Exec media server is runnign on physical hardware (which can be the Hyper-V host) and then use teh Hyper-V agent and/or appropriate remote agents installed in the servers you need to backup